Hop Shoots

hop shoots from the hop vine, Humulus lupulus, are a popular food in Belgium and the north of France around late March. The shoots are picked off the youngish plants as they start to grow up the hop poles. They are cooked in water, just long enough to make them tender, and then often served with scrambled eggs, or incorporated in a salad. Their sweet and aromatic flavour is set off by a slight touch of bitterness.

Hop shoots have been eaten in England also. Dorothy Hartley (1954) gives them as a Kentish dish—‘boiled in broth and eaten like asparagus with butter toast’—and in N. England they are boiled and served with melted butter.